Books About Improv Comedy

Video Transcript

"So, I'm talking to you about improv comedy, and what I want to talk about right now, is book recommendations. A lot of people in my improv classes, ask me for what books they should read, and I've read a ton of improv books, and many of them are the same, and some are better than others, so here is my list of recommendations for improv books, and which books are good for what things. My number one recommendation would be, Impro, by Keith Johnstone. This is a seminal text about improvisation, mainly about the psychological approach to improv, what goes on in the mind and the body, when you are improvising. I really recommend this to beginners, or new improvisers. I recommend it for my Improv 201 class. It's short. It's really readable, and don't even worry about the last section about masks, it's kind of weird, and don't worry about it. The rest though, is really good. Ok, the next book I recommend is, Truth in Comedy. This is by Charna Halpern and Del Close, founders of Second City and Improv Olympic, and this is another classic improv comedy text. It's going to go over the basics. It's going to drop a lot of celebrity names at you, to try and impress you. Don't worry about the celebrity names, just focus on the content. There's some good stuff in here, also very short. This is the book I would recommend, the Playbook:Improv Games For Performers, collected and edited by my friend, William Hall, and if you want to just get a list of improv games, I think this is the best book that is a compilation of improv games. It's divided up by category. There's great descriptions of the different games. There's some great quotes in the back. It's small enough to fit in your backpack, your pocket, and keep it with you in rehearsals, so if you want to learn a lot of improv games, this is the book for you. If you are interested in narrative long form, like I am, this is the book I would recommend, Acting on Impulse by Carol Hazenfield, a wonderful book. She's an amazing teacher. I've gotten to study with her, and I read this book, and I just wish I had written it. She covers great topics. It's very succinct, very clear. She's got exercises attached to each of the topics, and it covers storytelling, narrative long form, and also it's really good if you're starting your own troupe. She's got a great chapter about troupe mechanics, how to do those first rehearsals, how to do notes, and those kind of things, something that's missing from a lot of improv books, Acting on Impulse. If you're a super nerd like me, and you really love narrative long form, I recommend the Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler. This is actually a book for screenwriters, using mythic storytelling structure, from Joseph Campbell, and adapting it for screenwriters, and then I further adapt it for improvisers, so this is a text I use a lot in my own rehearsals. Lastly, if you're interested in applied improv, applied improv is using improv not for performance, but for businesses and organizations. This is the book I recommend, Improvise This! How to Think on Your Feet So You Don't Fall on Your Face by Mark Bergren, Molly Cox, and Jim Detmar. This is a great introduction to how you can use improv for the business world, so those are some of my book recommendations. You can find them online, or your local bookseller, and I hope you enjoy them, but I still recommend, do improv first, read about it second."